‘Deadpool’ Won’t Cross Over With the ‘X-Men’ Anytime Soon

Before it even had a chance to break records at the box office and become the highest-grossing X-Men film, Deadpool was already given the go-ahead for a sequel and fans began considering the possibilities for this new corner of the X-Men universe — will Deadpool appear in X-Force? Will he cross over with his mutant brethren in other films? Not so fast, according to the writers behind the Merc With a Mouth’s solo debut. They’ve got some big plans, but they’re not getting ahead of themselves.

While Deadpool heads into its third number one weekend at the box office, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick spoke with The Playlist about their newly-minted franchise. And although there are plans for Ryan Reynolds’ anti-superhero to mingle with other X-Men, Reese says it won’t be happening just yet:

If you look at the ‘Iron Man’ model they had two ‘Iron Man’ [movies] before they had an ‘Avengers,’ and if left up to us, I think that would be a very prudent path. The second issue at hand is the ‘X-Men’ universe timeline. ‘The X-Men’ series is currently set in the 1980s, ‘Deadpool,’ is set three decades later in our present day.

Adds Wernick:

It’s a timeline that will eventually catch up I would imagine. But [‘X-Men’ producer] Simon [Kingberg’s] more the keeper of that universe and maybe we’ll see more X-Men playing in Deadpool’s sandbox and probably Deadpool playing in their sandbox at some point.

Deadpool did feature one X-Men character in Colossus, which gave us an idea of how Reynolds’ character would interact (and hilariously clash) with his more heroic counterparts. But as Wernick notes, while Deadpool and the X-Men exist in the same franchise universe, they are very different entities in style, tone and content:

Deadpool’s now become a brand and franchise unto himself, independent of the ‘X-Men’ and that’s great. And that gives the studio two franchises in one, but I think it is its own franchise, and you’ll see synergy between those two properties, but they’re two very distinct brands.

It seems likely that we’ll see Deadpool cross over into other X-Men properties somewhere down the line, as long as it makes creative and narrative sense to do so. Although Deadpool was an instant hit, it looks like Reese and Wernick & Co. are remaining understandably cautious with the character — he’s a pretty big personality, and it would be pretty easy to facilitate Deadpool fatigue.

In the meantime, the X-Force movie remains in development, with the Deadpool post-credits scene confirming that we’ll see Cable in the upcoming sequel and a recent report suggesting that we may see Domino appear as well. According to Reese and Wernick, they’ll also be involved with the X-Force movie, which previously tapped Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow to develop the script.